A Brief History of Eating Apples

ETYMOLOGY, PROVERBS & SAYINGS

ETYMOLOGY

The word apple, formerly spelled æppel in Old English, is derived from the Proto-Germanic root ap(a)laz. European languages including Greek, Latin, English and French used to use the word apple to describe all hanging fruit containing seeds and even nuts right the way up until the 17th century. The exact transition and reason for the apple we know today to carry this name is unclear, however there has been speculation that as apples were easier to keep over long periods of time and were more readily available, the connection to that word became synonymous to that fruit, in the same way brands represent items, such as sellotape for clear adhesive tape, biro for a ball point pen and hoover for a vacuum cleaner.

Because the word apple meant all fruit other fruits used to contain the word apple, for example, the banana used to be referred to as the Apple of Paradise.

PROVERBS

One of the two partners always bites the best part of the apple. - Indian One rotten apple spoils the whole barrel. - English Adam ate the apple, and our teeth still ache. - Hungarian The apple does not fall far from the tree. - Traditional You can count the apples on a tree but you can’t count the trees from one apple. - Gypsy An apple never falls far from the tree. - English Good looking apples are sometimes sour. - Dutch If you want apples, you have to shake the trees. - Bulgarian A stone from the hand of a friend is an apple. - Mauritanian When the apple is ripe it will fall. - Irish Sometimes it is better to give your apple away than to eat it yourself. - Italian No apple tree is immune from worms. - Russian